# 13

# brainstorm.

## Post-Dated Journal Entry

The Post-Dated Journal Entry is not an original concept. It is exactly what it sounds like it is: choose a segment of time, and post date a journal entry that you would write as if everything is happening exactly how you wish - on that future date.

I mentioned the summer that I went to Breckenridge for June and July. I post-dated a journal entry for August 1 that I created on June 1. I read the journal entry every morning, and created the ‘state’ of what it would be like to really be living the manifested reality. Totally worked. However, it did not sustain itself because I had not developed the skillsets, or understanding, of what I was actually doing. I had lost 20 pounds in two months, and had great energy. I found a fun place to live that I moved into on Labor Day. Keeley (my dog) who had broken her paw a day before we left for the mountains, had no sign of breakage on the xray at her next vet visit and was able to hike and play outside within a week or two after it happened. I fit into everything I ever bought (I had a habit of buying clothes that I was GOING to fit into). I even became great friends with a woman who owned her own coffeeshop and baked all her own pastries (we are still friends to this day…that was not necessarily on my Post-Dated Journal Entry, but I was always daydreaming of working at a coffeeshop).

Eight years ago, the manifested desires were all external things that I thought would make me happy once I attained them. I now realize that you make yourself happy by regulating your energy, noticing your thinking patterns, and telling your own story - living in an intentional state of positive expectation. The external desires show up because they align with the state you create by caring about how you feel moment to moment. As these ideas develop, the concepts will make more sense. Stick with it. There is a reason you are engaging in this book.

Get a notebook. Open a document on your computer. And get.after.it. As you practice, you may start to create in small segments. For example, on a Sunday night you may consider the following Sunday night. What makes a great Sunday night? Beginning with the end in mind. (BTW…I love Leader in Me which is a school social-emotional curriculum based on Stephen Covey’s 7 habits of highly effective people. All wellbeing skills, tools, and strategies can be channeled through the program. I worked at several Leader in Me schools and gradually integrated all my ideas into Covey’s framework. Genius).

## Creative Visualization

As mentioned, I met a new friend in Breckenridge during ‘the summer of change’ who was transitioning from being a full-time mental health therapist, to being the owner of a coffeeshop. On a side note, it may be of interest to mention that working in a coffeeshop was my fantasy when things got overwhelming (which was often). Anyway, she had boxes of books stored in her garage. I think that was where I found a copy of Shatki Gawain’s Creative Visualization.

I used Shatki’s chapter on Setting Goals as a strategy to create a desire for more. The reason I italicized the word create is because that is the skill being developed when we brainstorm new ideas and possibilities.

When I first got into this content area of self-development and personal growth, I thought I was on board with visualization. The concept of visualizing made sense to me. If you have ever been an athlete or interested in sports or performance in general, it is commonly understood that elite athletes and/or performers use visualization as a tool for top performance. Visualize the outcome you desire. Take in the sensory experience of the desired outcome - the feel of your body, the roar of the crowd, etc. This made and makes sense to me.

When I intentionally began to use this skill, I found that it was not as easy as I assumed. When you create, by using your imagination, new outcomes and the sensory experience and details of those new outcomes, you are creating new neural pathways. By virtue of this being a new or underdeveloped pathway, you are designing it as if it doesn’t exist or at least the familiarity of the pathway is not available. As easy as it seems to create desired outcomes, it does take some focus to get started on new ‘visions’. It also can be difficult in the early stages as those around you may not be on board with your new desires. Depending on the novelty of your idea (think Steve Jobs) you are creating new pathways that are not familiar to those who spend the most time with you, which can make relationships a bit uncomfortable. People have familiar pathways of relating to you and others in general (as humans we don’t always do well with unexpected behavior - especially with people we have known for a long time). Let’s not get too into the ‘others’ yet. Self-care is caring about yourself. The use and development of skills, tools, and strategies that grow your wellbeing is between you and you.

Shatki’s brainstorming activity can support the experience of creating. Get on board by considering the development of the skill: to create. Notice discomfort, and see if you can intentionally move toward the discomfort with a desire to shift into a fun, playful (creative) state by using the skill of creating that lives in the prefrontal cortex where fun and playfulness can be accessed. Notice the self-talk. A popular resource that I often came across in my own process was called ‘the Artist’s Way’ by Julia Cameron. I never completed the course, but I did begin it and recall Julia’s discussion about ‘the blurt’. She talked about listening for the blurt and flipping the blurt, or being curious about the blurt. The blurt is the inner voice that can sound like self-doubt. For example, when you brainstorm your desires, you may limit your capacity to create by listening to the blurt that suggests that your desire is immoral, unconventional, impractical, etc. Self-awareness helps you notice the blurt and flip the blurt: : ‘what if I can_____’, ‘what if it was true’, etc.

When we get stuck, or find ourselves spinning, in life results that never seem quite satisfying, we are most likely operating from the well worn neural pathways of familiarity. Whether or not these pathways are helpful or hurtful is not necessarily something we tend to consider. Outcomes are familiar (we have seen, smelled, tasted, touched this before) and the patterns continue to stay deeply embedded, until we become aware of the patterns that limit us and intentionally disrupt them.

To become aware of the patterns is the only place to begin. But then what? Here is where our capacity, and innate skill, to create new outcomes becomes quite relevant. Once you recognize the thinking pattern (belief, mindset, paradigm) that is limiting you, you want to disrupt the pattern by telling a new story. We are living in the age of disruption (politics, retail, transportation, media, entertainment, etc). It is cool to disrupt.

Practicing tools that support creating new ideas helps us to grow new neural pathways, and get out of the familiar well worn pathways that limit us.

I am not one to set goals as much as I am one to set goals. I tend to set themes and reasonable expectations for segments of time. I also like to create or write stories about my life unfolding in fun and fabulous ways. What the stories are creating is a state of positive expectation, which allows me to enjoy the journey and the moment rather than be attached to, and obsessed with, a particular outcome. I return to this reminder often as I create this sequence of skills. Obviously there is an outcome to publish. The joy (to enjoy) is now. The process. The journey.

This brainstorm activity may just be that - a brainstorm activity that supports your ability to create new ideas and outcomes. Creating is a skill, an ability. Everyone has it. Below are slides from a recent lesson to middle school students where I facilitated my own version Shatki’s activity. I also used the activity straight from the book in the original course I taught to high school students.

## Writing Prompt

The outcome of this activity is to have the experience of using your innate skill to create, and to enjoy the fun and playful ‘state’ that creating preferred outcomes brings. Notice the ‘blurt’ and flip the blurt (this is a great skill to acquire). What if I can?

This writing prompt I return to over and over again. I may do it in my mind while I’m on a walk ,or driving. I love to write. I have multiple notebooks. I write present thoughts that are either curious, positive, fun, validating, or generally uplifting. I write stories that are either funny, or about life as I dream it up and want it to be. Knowing that I am growing the state of possibility, as opposed to being absolutely attached to a specific outcome.

As I reflect, I think my current writing comes from me already being in a state of possibility, or in alignment, with my most balanced, natural state. This means that I do not use my journal writing, or love of writing, to get to the balanced state. I use other skills, tools, and strategies that support the state of possibility, and allow me to get clear (I think it’s called meditation - wink wink). I write from that state. This may or may not be true for you.

My current journal writing is the opposite of how it was when I first began in my teen years. I used to be quite proud of the pages I could fill up in a notebook during one sitting. I collected those notebooks, and my collection had grown to quite a number.

When I began graduate school, my ‘depression’ really showed up full force. I have an experience that is relevant to journaling, and may be relevant to you. Christian Molidor. Christian was the dean of the Graduate School of Social Work when I began the program. I didn’t have him as a professor, and I’m not sure how we began our interactions. I think his office was near one of my classes, and I would say hi to him and stop to talk.

In one discussion, I must have mentioned the depression. Christian was an LCSW, and you know how those ‘therapist-types’ are…it gets real - fast. I think he inquired about the depression, and asked if I journaled. I felt as if a spotlight came on, I had this opportunity to really shine in front of this human I wanted to impress (by virtue of his status in the program). What a perfect question setting me up to look good.

Of course I told him all the amazing journaling I had done, and all the notebooks that I had kept and just happened to have all in one box, as I had just moved to Denver. He said, ‘why don’t you bring in a few notebooks and maybe I can understand your thinking a bit and we can work on this ‘depression.’ Something like that - it was fall of 2005, my memory isn’t all that great for detail.

I felt special that the dean of the GSSW was open to spending time with me. In preparation for our meeting, I thought I should look at my journals to have a peek at what he may be seeing. When I ‘peeked’ I was astounded at the negativity, and the momentum of the same story over and over. The theme would be hate. I hated myself.

This was the very beginning of graduate school in a clinical field. I was by no means any sort of expert in understanding human behavior (I thought I was - that’s another story). I picked up on the pattern fast and could not be free of those notebooks any faster. It was as if they literally caught on fire. I hurled them out away from me as quickly as I could. Ew. No more.

I stopped journaling.

As I write this and am reflecting, I think I began journaling again to kick off the Breckenridge summer. I have no recollection of notebooks prior to that time.

I can think back to things I said, did, or wondered about long before I began getting curious about enlightenment or self-care, personal growth, etc. We are constantly connecting to our highest self long before we have labeled or categorized our thinking, giving it a hashtag, and making meaning of it. I was ignorant, and out of sync, with so much that I understand now; but I knew enough to stop the harmful pattern I had created.

Without a coach or a therapist, I had a very clear introspection that writing in detail about how much I hated myself was not the answer. It was actually the opposite. Hating myself was the antithesis to what I desired.

The writing prompt that I currently use is simple. Once again, it is definitely not my original concept as you may already be familiar with it.

Remember, the end game (that never ends) is to create. To be curious. To wonder. To expand. These are all skillsets and states that align with the field of possibility. You may notice that the skills, tools, and strategies I am sharing are all resources to align you with the most natural and balanced version of you. That’s it. What you do and where you go from there? You create your content. You tell your story.